By Paul Losch
About this blog: I was a "corporate brat" growing up and lived in different parts of the country, ending in Houston, Texas for high school. After attending college at UC Davis, and getting an MBA at Harvard, I embarked on a marketing career, mai...
(More)About this blog: I was a "corporate brat" growing up and lived in different parts of the country, ending in Houston, Texas for high school. After attending college at UC Davis, and getting an MBA at Harvard, I embarked on a marketing career, mainly in the Bay Area with different companies. My former wife went back to medical school after we had been married a few years, and we moved into married student housing at Stanford, had our two now adult children while she was a medical student, and moved into Palo Alto when she started her Residency. Been here ever since. As my kids were going through the Palo Alto schools, I was actively involved in their activities, most notably head umpire for Palo Alto Little League and 9 years as a member of the Parks and Recreation Commission, among other activities. My kids both are grown, my son teaches 5th grade locally, and my daughter, fluent in Mandarin, is working in China. I sold the business I owned and ran for 8 years in 2012, worked on the Obama campaign, and am consulting for non-profit organizations, which gives me a nice, flexible schedule. Lots of stamps in my passport, and for fun, I like live performances &emdash; theater and music - and of course the Giants!
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With apologies to Kermit the Frog from Sesame Street, this Byxbee Park/Composting Facility question is an incredible conundrum.
Well intentioned people/leaders of enhancing our environment come down on opposite sides of the question, which is whether after the dump is shut down, a portion of it should be put aside as a composting facility.
This concept was voted down by myself and others on the Parks and Recreation Commission, but we only advise City Council. They decided Monday night to pursue the matter further, and there will be a study/analysis around one approach for composting on part of what is Byxbee Parkland.
It is easy to jump into the deep end of the pool on this one and get hopelessly struggling to not drown.
My opinion is that this particular matter is moving down the train tracks as the rails are being laid. There clearly are some conflicting objectives, conflicting City policies, and alternative approaches to the notion of composting. To extend the analogy probably further than it deserves to go, our City leadership is getting railroaded by funding a quarter million dollar study on one approach at one site.
I take a great deal of pride in living in a City that has done many innovative things that have been adapted by other communities over the years. I hope we can do that with composting in some form or fashion.
What's missing is a lack of clear objectives, no discussion around policy and master plans, and lack of alternatives to evaluate. Even though I opposed it when it was presented to us on the Parks and Recreation Commission a couple years back, I would be willing to learn why this is the best choice for Palo Altans. And if it is the best alternative, I would be prepared to support it.
That's not how this matter is going down.
